Shipwrights' Guild
| upkeep_cost = | sells_for = | pre = None | building_unlock = | unit_unlock = }} A Shipwrights' Guild is a type of Town Building. It can be constructed in any sea-side town that does not belong to the Lizardmen, and has no other prerequisites. Its base construction cost is . The Shipwrights' Guild is the first structure that can produce Ships - specifically, Triremes. It is therefore necessary to have at least one town with a Shipwrights' Guild in order to expand to other continents - assuming you have no access to other methods of getting troops across water. Many races also need the Shipwrights' Guild for building larger vessels and/or for the eventual construction of the Merchants' Guild. The Shipwrights' Guild has no further effects of its own, but still requires an Upkeep Cost of per turn for its maintenance. If you are pressed for Gold, a Shipwrights' Guild can be sold back for . Description The Shipwrights' Guild is a workshop providing a place for boat-builders to congregate and construct light boats. With concerted efforts, the shipwrights gathered here can build a small but useful transport ship called the Trireme, which can ferry other units across water and provide some naval strength. The building appears as a small boat hangar with a short wooden pier extending in front of it. Naturally, this building can only be constructed in a town that has access to a body of water, so that the pier can extend into the water and allow boats to dock. Races and Construction All Races in the game except the Lizardmen have access to the Shipwrights' Guild. Lizardmen have no use for this structure, as they are quite capable of swimming on their own - and thus do not use ships. All other races require ships for transportation across Oceans. Shipwrights' Guilds can only be constructed in towns that are immediately adjacent to a Shore tile. Even towns one tile away from the shore cannot build Shipwrights' Guilds nor any of the structures unlocked by them. A town requires no other Town Buildings in order to create a Shipwrights' Guild - it is available for construction as soon as a town becomes capable of producing anything. Construction of a Shipwrights' Guild costs . This makes the structure a little too expensive to be built in every single town - and is normally not required unless ship construction is going to take place in a town. The Shipwrights' Guild requires an Upkeep Cost of per turn. Failure to pay these costs does not cause the Shipwrights' Guild to be abandoned - Town Buildings only drain your treasury, so that you have less with which to pay for other things. Continuous Effects The Shipwrights' Guild has no integral effects of its own. It is used only for unlocking further construction of Town Buildings and/or Ships. Unlocked Town Buildings A Shipwrights' Guild is one of the two components required for constructing a Ship Yard - providing the basic infrastructure for construction and docking. The other component is the Sawmill, which provides high-quality wooden planks for more advanced ship-building. The Ship Yard becomes available only once both structures are present in a town. Unlocked Normal Units The Shipwrights' Guild unlocks only one unit - the Trireme - for any race that can construct this building. It provides no other units, standard or race-specific. The Trireme is a basic vessel, used primarily for transportation. It can carry up to two Walking units at a fairly-good rate, and can be used either for crossing a body of water or for quick travel along the shoreline (instead of sending the units on foot over land). It has poor combat capabilities. Strategy Most empires will find themselves eventually needing to expand to other continents, or at least scouting the contours of continents and locating islands out at sea. The Trireme, being the simplest vessel available to any race, is the first unit that allows an empire to do so. As a result, a Shipwrights' Guild will eventually need to be constructed. There is often little incentive to build a Shipwrights' Guild early on - unless your starting town is isolated from the rest of the world. Once the imperative to scout or expand emerges, select a sea-side town with high to serve as a naval port and construct your Shipwrights' Guild there. This town will be responsible for production of all ships, and will likely upgrade the Shipwrights' Guild into a Ship Yard or even a Maritime Guild if available, later in the game. As you empire expands, keep an eye out for opportunities to build more naval docks. You want to be able to produce a ship in any region on the map as necessary, rather than producing them on the far side of a continent and having to move them all the way to the other side for some simple transportation duty. Essentially, any sea-side region that is far away from your nearest naval docks should get one town that contains a Shipwrights' Guild at the very least. Some races like the High Men have access to the Merchants' Guild, meaning that pretty much any sea-side town will eventually need a Shipwrights' Guild - a prerequisite to the Ship Yard which then leads to the Merchants' Guild. Such races have a strong incentive to create many sea-side towns for this specific purpose. Other races have no need to ships at all. The Lizardmen all swim, and thus do not need ships - and cannot produce the Shipwrights' Guild at all. Draconians can fly - but require the Shipwrights' Guild in order to produce the Air Ship - though this will generally require no more than one or two towns to actually embark down the naval docks branch of construction. Category:Town Buildings